by K. A. Linde
Twenty minutes later, Sam burst out of the mayor’s office. He pointed his finger at me with a smile on his beautiful face. “You!”
I laughed and dashed to him. “You got the job!”
“You tricked me.”
“I did. It was Leslie’s idea.”
He shook his head and then scooped me up. He lifted me clear off of my feet and twirled me around in a tight circle. “I can’t believe this.”
“I couldn’t either.”
“You know…when you said we should use your connections to get me another job, I thought that you were being abstract.”
“I think we both have Court to thank for this. Not my connections. His.”
“Yeah. That seems fair. But damn…”
He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and guided me toward the exit. It was a beautiful summer day. The clouds had cleared, and the sun was shining.
“So, can I walk you back to work?”
I laughed and kissed him. “Definitely.”
“It’s going to be weird, not seeing you in the office every day.”
“A little,” I agreed. “I liked having you so close.”
“Me too. So that my boss could objectify me.”
I snorted. “Yeah. Sure. Okay.”
“But it’s better for the campaign to have this separation.”
“It is,” I told him. “And anyway, Kensington Corporation isn’t that far from the office. We could meet in the middle for burgers.”
“You’ve convinced me,” he said.
Then he pressed another kiss onto my lips.
One that meant forever.
39
Lark
The polls were closed.
Ballots were being counted.
We were just waiting on the final numbers.
Everyone stared up at the enormous screen that had been erected inside the grand ballroom of Percy Tower. Newscasters had the tallies up for recorded votes between Kensington and Reyes. It was closer than I’d thought it would be. Closer than any of us had thought it would. We still had so many precincts left to tally, and my nerves were frayed.
Sam put his hand on my shoulder. He had the same edge to him as we waited anxiously to find out whether this was a victory or concession party for the mayor. We’d done all we could for the campaign the last two weeks. We’d laid it all out on the table. If we didn’t win the primary, then it was all over. We wouldn’t even have the general election to see if we could defeat Quinn.
And then it was time.
I squeezed Sam’s hand as hard as I could as the screen put up one name—Kensington.
I screamed. But no one noticed. Everyone else was screaming too. Jumping up and down and throwing their arms around each other. Sam and I embraced as tears ran down my face. I’d barely slept in weeks. I had the beginning of a cold. But I was so happy that none of that even mattered.
“You did it,” Sam said, brushing my hair out of my face.
“We did it. We all did it.”
He smiled. “Don’t be modest. You’re the heart of this campaign.”
I laughed and hugged him again. “I love you.”
It was a few minutes before Leslie appeared. I knew she had been making a phone call to Reyes, thanking him for a good, respectable race. It was tradition and classy. But here she was in a sharp black suit. She stepped up to the microphone onstage before her Kensington for Mayor banners and the American flag.
“My fellow New Yorkers, it is with great honor that I accept the official nomination for mayor of New York City. You spoke out and said that we need four more years. Four more years to continue to make the changes we have seen all across this great city. The work is just beginning. And I want to be the one to see it through.”
I glowed as the mayor continued her prepared victory speech. It was eloquent and energizing. It made me want to get back out there tomorrow and get to work. Of course, I had a few days off and planned to spend them with Sam and his brother, Jake, who was flying in in the morning. He’d never even been to New York. So, I’d play tourist in my hometown. But I was excited to meet part of his family. He promised that, after the election, he’d take me to North Carolina for Thanksgiving, and I could meet everyone. I was looking forward to that too.
“Thank you, and God bless!” the mayor concluded, waving at the array of cameras and the awaiting crowd below.
We cheered our heads off for her as waiters littered the room with champagne to celebrate. The energy in the room felt like New Year’s Eve. We grabbed two glasses and sipped on them as our friends swarmed us with congratulations.
“You did it! You’re amazing!” English said, pulling me into a hug.
She’d returned from LA, as planned. She hadn’t quite been herself, but how could I even blame her? But the weirdest thing was how she was treating Court. Before, she had always been matter-of-fact with him but somehow still easygoing. Like he was business but also a friend. And now, the two glared at each other like they were ready to attack at any minute.
Even as she pulled back, English carefully stepped away from Court and to the other side of me. Court rolled his eyes at the move and downed the rest of his champagne.
“As if I had any doubts,” Katherine said with her know-it-all smirk.
“God, I had enough for the rest of us,” I said.
Camden actually put his arm around Katherine’s waist before he said, “I wouldn’t have approved a party like this in my hotel if it wasn’t going to be a victory.”
He said it as if he’d had something to do with it other than his vote. And god, sometimes, I wondered if he did.
Plus, the way Katherine and Camden had been acting was weird too. They’d actually shown up to the event together. Something I’d never seen happen on purpose. And he was even touching her in public when there weren’t cameras. Perhaps, his knight-in-shining-armor routine had worked on Katherine the night of the raid. I’d thought about asking Katherine if she knew that Camden had been the one to call the cops in the first place, but they were happy enough, and I didn’t want to be the one to rock the boat.
“Congrats, boss,” Aspen said, appearing out of nowhere with her own hug for me.
“The real champion.” I gestured to Aspen.
She blushed. “Psh, I just answer calls and keep your schedule.”
“You’re the best. The very best.”
“And cute,” Whitley said with a wink.
“Dibs,” Gavin said next to her.
I rolled my eyes at the both of them. “Neither of you can corrupt my assistant.”
Aspen’s eyes were wide as she raised her hand. “I am completely corruptible.”
Sam pulled me backward before I could keep that from happening. “I think someone else wants your attention.”
I moved my eyes from Aspen talking to my friends and found, to my surprise, my parents standing nearby. They were dressed to the nines. All glitz and glamour.
I took a deep breath, knowing that I would have to talk to them. Even though I didn’t want to. But I didn’t want to be in this fight forever. I didn’t think I needed to apologize. I just wanted new ground rules, so we could be a family again.
I clutched Sam’s hand as we traversed the room to stand before them.
“Mother,” I said with a head nod and then leaned into a kiss from my father. “Daddy.”
“Hey, sweetheart,” he said.
“Larkin, darling,” my mother said. “It’s good to see you.”
“And who is this young man?”
I swallowed. “Daddy, this is my boyfriend, Sam Rutherford.”
Sam shook my father’s hand. “Nice to meet you, sir.”
“Nice to meet you too. I’ve heard quite a bit about you.”
I narrowed my eyes at my mother. “I’m sure Mother has been exaggerating.”
“I actually heard from Leslie Kensington that he’s a fine, upstanding young man. That he’s going to be working for Kensington Corporation as an attorney. Imp
ressive.”
Sam’s eyes shifted to me in surprise before returning to my father. “Thank you, sir.”
“We don’t want to keep you long from your celebrations,” my mother said. “But we wanted to talk to you about Thomas.”
I froze at those words. At all the horrors that could come from that comment.
“We fired him,” my father said plainly.
“You did?” I gasped.
Thomas had somehow gotten out of the charges leveled against him for the underground gambling ring. Apparently, it hadn’t actually been his place. He had just been bragging about it. Though others had said that he’d had a bigger part in it than he’d claimed after he was arrested. I thought he’d gotten off with a slap on the wrist, like always. The snake always slithered away.
“We did,” my mother said. “You were right about him. We just…we so desperately wanted you to work for us, to be a part of what we have. We thought you would say anything to stay away. We didn’t realize the kind of person he really was. And I likely wouldn’t have believed it now if you hadn’t opened my eyes to our behavior when you confronted me at your apartment.”
“And because of that, he is no longer employed with St. Vincent’s Enterprise. And he’ll receive no letter of recommendation from anyone in the business.”
My mouth fell open in surprise. “Wow. I’m so…shocked.”
“You shouldn’t be,” my father said. He pulled me into a hug and kissed the top of my head. “We should have listened to you from the start.”
I nearly choked on that. “Wow.”
“You know you could be doing amazing things with the company still,” my mother said with a grin.
“Mother,” I said with a sigh.
“Hope, we talked about this.”
My mother chewed on her bottom lip and straightened. “Of course. We see that you’re…happy?”
It was more of a question than a statement, but I could see she was trying.
“I am.”
“It’s not what we would have wanted for you,” my father said.
“I know.”
“And the door is always open,” my mother added hopefully.
“That I am also aware of,” I said with a small laugh.
“We could start with brunch?” my mother suggested.
“Great idea. Lark, you should bring Sam over for brunch sometime,” my father said and then turned to address Sam. “We’d like to get to know you better.”
“Yes, sir,” Sam said.
I hugged them both one more time. It was a step in the right direction. Not perfect by any means. But they were my parents. They’d spent their life expecting me to fall into line, and it would take some time for us to patch this all up. If we ever were able to.
So, I waved good-bye and then they fell back into step with their friends and other big donors. But I just stood there for another moment.
“Did that just happen?” I asked Sam. “I didn’t just dream it?”
“Looks like your parents have finally come around.”
“Not completely. But maybe just maybe they will eventually.”
“You stood up to your mom. She wants to be a part of your life, and you told her there was only one way to do it. So, she did it.”
“And I didn’t think people could change.”
He took my hand and pulled me close. “You’ve changed me for the better.”
“Yes, that’s true. And you’ve changed me for the better.”
“Come on. Let’s go celebrate your victory.”
“Our victory.”
And then we walked hand in hand back toward our friends and the future we had created for ourselves. A bright and glorious future.
Epilogue
Six Months Later -- Lark
“We’re still on for dinner, right?” Sam asked.
I nodded even though he couldn’t see me through the phone. “Yes. Definitely. I’m ready to get out of here to meet you.”
He laughed. “Me too. We’ve been swamped all day today.”
“Should I just meet you at Buns later? Or did you want to go together?”
“Meeting me is fine.”
“Okay.” I glanced at the time. “I have to get going. I have a meeting with Leslie.”
“Love you.”
“Love you too,” I said before hanging up the phone.
The last six months had been a hectic, amazing, brilliant time in my life. Sam had moved in right after the primary. English had moved upstairs to her own place on the same day. I loved having my best friend close and, even more, having Sam with me all the time.
Almost as much as I loved working as Leslie’s chief of staff. Shawn had gone to help elect someone else as soon as the campaign was over, and Leslie had asked me to stay on for her top position. It had been an honor to accept.
I hopped out of my chair and knocked on the door that led into the mayor’s office. Then before she even had time to answer, I strode in, looking down at my tablet with the list of things we needed to discuss today.
“Hi, Leslie. Everything is prepared for your speech at the charity function tomorrow night. And then the groundbreaking for the new domestic violence facility is coming up…”
“Lark,” Leslie said with a small chuckle. “Why don’t we sit down?”
I glanced up in surprise to find Leslie walking around her hulking desk and coming around to the couches in front of them. She took the head armchair, and I sank into a blue couch next to her.
“Should I start over with the agenda?”
“Put the agenda away. That’s not what this meeting is about.”
“Okay,” I said as I set the tablet on the seat next to me.
“I need to tell you something. Something I haven’t spoken to about with anyone else, except my children,” she said evenly.
I frowned. I didn’t like where this was going. It couldn’t be good. Was she sick? Was she going to have to take a step back? She looked so serious. It made me nervous.
“But I want your honest opinion on this. You’re not talking to your boss. You’re talking to a friend.”
“Okay,” I said carefully. “I like to think we’re friends.”
Leslie smiled candidly. “So do I.” Her blue eyes were steady on my face, looking for a reaction. “I am going to put in my bid to run for president.”
My jaw dropped open. But my heart soared.
“Leslie! That’s…that’s incredible. You’d make a great candidate.”
“I’m not certain of that,” she said with a small sigh. “But I am glad that you think so. I have many things that go against me in the race. Many things that could come out in the election cycle. They would dig through my past, through my finances, my children, my husband, my political career. It would all be on the table.”
“And yet, you still think that you should run?”
She nodded once, decisively. “Despite all that, I think that I can make a difference. I think I can do more than just be the mayor of New York City. I could help the nation.”
“I think you could too.”
“I’m glad,” she said. “Because I would like you to run my campaign.”
This time, my jaw hit the floor.
My dream.
The one I’d had every day since hearing Governor Woodhouse speak.
The one I’d never thought would be a reality.
It was here.
She was asking me to run her bid for president.
“You’re more than qualified,” Leslie said. “And I want to put my money where my mouth is. I want as many qualified women in top positions as I can get. I know I can only do this with you at the helm. What do you say?”
“Yes,” I said without hesitation. “Yes. Absolutely yes. I’ll do it.”
“It’s going to be tough. We both know it will be. But it will be worth it.”
“It will be.”
“You can’t tell anyone yet, of course.”
“Anyone?”
&nbs
p; She laughed. “Well, you can tell Sam.”
I grinned. “Oh good.”
“But we’ll have to put together an announcement date and start to get the team back together.”
“I’m so happy for you,” I told her honestly. “I think we can do this.”
“I sure hope so.”
We spent the next hour strategizing everything that we could for the presidential election, which would be exponentially bigger than what we’d run in the past. I had pages of notes on my tablet by the end of our conversation. And I felt like I was on cloud nine as I skipped out of the office and headed to Buns to tell Sam.
Sam was waiting for me at our booth in the back of the completely empty burger joint. He stood when I rushed into the place, his eyebrow arched at my enthusiasm.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
I grabbed his hand and tried not to jump up and down with excitement. “No one else knows but Court and Penn, but Leslie just told me that she’s planning to run for president.”
“Holy shit! That’s incredible, Lark.”
I bounced a little on my toes. “And even more…she wants me to run her campaign.”
“Wow. That’s a huge responsibility. I can’t think of anyone else who would be better for the job.”
“I can’t even believe this is my life. That I could be this lucky.”
“It’s not luck. You’ve put in the work, and now, you’re being rewarded for your loyalty and dedication.”
“You’re right. I know. But it still seems totally out of this world that it’s happening.”
He grinned down at me. “I guess this might make my news seem a little less exciting.”
“Oh?” I asked. “What’s your news?”
Slowly, he withdrew a small Tiffany blue box from his pocket. My hands flew to my mouth as he went down on one knee in the middle of our diner and opened the box to reveal a round cut diamond with other diamonds on either side of it on the platinum band.
“Lark, will you marry me?”
“Oh my god,” I gasped, tears coming to my eyes. “Yes, yes, so much yes. What is this day? I can’t believe this is happening. Of course I’ll marry you.”